Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Muslims in Broward County, Florida have requested that local schools give students the day off on Islamic holidays, just as they do on major Christian and Jewish holidays. The local chapter of CAIR says that Muslims have been excluded for too long, and it is time for the district to become truly inclusive.

In other news, Yasser Arafat’s widow Suha has requested that a murder investigation be opened into the circumstances surrounding the death of her husband. The French authorities have begun the process by agreeing to exhume his body so that it may be forensically examined.

Thanks to Fjordman, JD, JP, Kitman, RE, ST, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Fjordman’s latest essay has been published at FrontPage Mag. He includes this note with excerpts from the article:

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Excerpts:

I paid a visit to southern Sweden on October 27, 2012. The occasion was a visit to Malmö by a fellow notorious Islamophobe, the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. He had been invited there to speak by Ingrid Carlqvist, the leader of the newly established Swedish Free Press Society. This is a brave but difficult initiative in a semi-totalitarian society, where the mass media are infamous for their crushing left-wing, multicultural and pro-Islamic consensus.

Malmö was historically one of the first Christian cities in what is today Sweden. It is currently set to become the first Muslim-majority city or town in the Nordic countries, but perhaps not the last. What once was a safe Scandinavian city has in recent years been plagued by a wave of armed robberies, rapes and bombs.

The performance of the Swedish police was a mixed bag. From my personal experience, they did a reasonably good job, but they apparently let through a few things that I didn’t see. Katrine Winkel Holm of the Danish Free Press Society reported about physical assaults on some of those who simply came peacefully to listen to Wilders’ speech. Holm criticized the police for giving violent left-wing thugs too much leeway to intimidate and attack people in the streets, trying to block them from entering, or bombarding them with eggs while calling them “Nazis.”

Upon arrival we noticed there was already a heavy police presence. To invite perhaps the most famous Islam-critical politician in Europe to speak in the most heavily Islamized city in Scandinavia was a slap in the face, not just to Muslims, but at least as much to their enablers on the far Left. Predictably, those leftists showed up in force. Not just from Sweden; they even imported violent left-wing thugs from neighboring Denmark to assault people.

I’d been wondering how the politics of Hurricane Sandy & Co. would play out. It was clear that Obama had some lessons to learn. First, he would he have to overcome the hubris that led to his repeated trashing of George Bush about Katrina, admitting somewhere along the way that it was/is the role of the states’ governors to lead the way in such disasters, NOT the president. Second, and more difficult, for appearances’ sake Obama would also have to avoid seeming to be carrying on with too much politicking during the worst of it.

To do otherwise would make him seem cynical and calculating. Besides, if he rode Sandy into convenient photo ops the take-away message might not be the one he intended. Thus, it might be best to lead from behind and hope his trusty dupes allies in the MSM would, as usual, carry water for him yet again. In this case, whole floods of water.

Still, I was naïve enough to think any overtly ugly jostling for political position would be set aside for a few days while people dug out from under.

No such luck.

Look at this slam by MSNBC, castigating Romney for being proactive on behalf of those in need of help:

So just when you think the MSM can’t get any sleazier, it drops a little lower into the cesspool. These talking heads have obviously overdosed on the Alinsky Kool-Aid; they are zealous in their earnest determination not to let this crisis go to waste. Donning their water wings to slosh around in the slime, they strive to dunk Romney for his gall in going against Obama’s orders. Imagine disobeying the President and directly appealing to those who showed up at his Ohio venue.

Only Romney outfoxed them again. Notice what Lead-from-Behind said: leave it to the Red Cross; they know what they’re doing, blah blah. Typical socialist clap trap: don’t take it upon yourself to actually do anything useful. Just throw money at the “experts”.

Romney didn’t countermand the Lazy One, he simply moved his pieces into another position by appealing to those who would be attending his already-scheduled stop to bring items to donate to the Red Cross. Lead-From-Behind is still playing checkers while those experienced in helping others — aid and assistance in real time — have moved on to the logistics of getting that stuff to people who need it.

Romney has been performing works of mercy his whole life. This vital aspect of his life is due not only to his family ethos, it is part and parcel of who he is in and of himself. All his life, Romney has been helping others; the stories are legion. But that part of him is not in the limelight and you can be assured that anything the MSM found while they dug frantically into his past has been kept from you lest you find out the truth because the man’s basic benignity is useless as a weapon against him. Aside from a junior high prank, the diggers have come up empty when it comes to his personal life. They are reduced to lame “exposés” about his dog, for heaven’s sake.

The definitive book about this man’s charity, personally and corporately, both in the moment as needed and in repeated long-term projects undertaken with others — that book has yet to be written. It is simply part of his character and if character counts for anything in politics, he may change the game in D.C., if only because his startling difference will shine a light on that increasingly aggressive grab-or-be-grabbed environment on the Potomac.

It certainly can’t be written now. The cynics would look for underhanded motives, and his opponents would use his compassion against him. They specialize in ugly, and Romney has provided them with slim pickings.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The latest reports indicate that the death toll from Hurricane Sandy has risen to more than 40. Beaches in New Jersey and New York have been devastated, the tunnels and subway in New York City were flooded, and falling trees crushed cars and houses in Manhattan and Long Island. Millions of people are still without electricity across the Northeast.

In other news, a Scottish archaeologist working on Baffin Island far above the Arctic Circle has uncovered definitive evidence that the Vikings once visited the island.

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, Salome, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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The Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is not very well known in the United States. Most Americans have probably never heard of it, since it rarely features in our domestic media.

However, the OSCE’s plan to monitor next week’s presidential election gained some attention in the last few weeks, particularly after the Attorney General of Texas announced that “groups and individuals from outside the United States are not allowed to influence or interfere with the election process in Texas” and would be prosecuted if they tried.

Our longtime reader and commenter Egghead has been doing research on the OSCE and its attempts to gain hands-on experience with the American electoral process. The essay below is the first of a series on this and related topics.

An Ocean Away: The Ties That Bind the USA to the OSCEby Egghead

OSCE? What the heck is that? Oh, the OSCE is the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

So, who cares? It’s probably just a small boring useless working committee — about Europe — in Europe. Right?

WRONG. Recent press mentions of the OSCE in conjunction with OSCE monitoring of the upcoming presidential elections in the United States prompted me to research the role of the OSCE in international politics. Unfortunately, the more that I learn, the more frightened I become of the ever-expanding potential and power of the OSCE to control Americans and other free peoples. In fact, at this point, I definitely have OSCE-phobia.

Let us consider the name of the OSCE ,which is an alphabet soup acronym designed to sound innocuous. Break apart the acronym, and you get the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Notice that the word security comes before co-operation, leading one to speculate that the OSCE prioritizes security over co-operation — which I fear might lead to enforcement of coercive governance.

“With 56 States from Europe, Central Asia and North America, the OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organization. It offers a forum for political negotiations and decision-making in the fields of early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation, and puts the political will of its participating States into practice through its unique network of field missions.”

It is important to note that the political will of participating States (as articulated by elected or unelected leaders) may be different than the political will of the citizens of those states. To wit, where the citizens might seek to overthrow a tyrannical ruler or a tyrannical set of laws such as Sharia Law, the OSCE might choose to enforce the political will of the leaders and their laws upon unruly citizens who might be seen as needing post-conflict rehabilitation. The point is that the OSCE implements State political will rather than the rights of citizens.

These refugees from Syria, who just recently arrived in Sweden, complain about the living conditions in their temporary accommodations in their adopted country. One of them even says death in Syria would be better than life in Sweden under current circumstances.

ASYLUM SEEKERS: We all know what is happening in Syria. Indiscriminate shootings, bombings, with thousands of victims. Many of them flee the country, and little surprise that not so few find all the way up here. So far, Sweden has welcomed more than 4000 Syrians, which Migrationsverket must accommodate in living quarters all over the country, while the asylum procedure lasts. We should believe the Syrians are thankful for getting a roof over their heads, peaceful days, and that they escape from anything liking a war?

Forget it. Instead, they complain about the living quarters, that there are too many in the quarters. The owner running the quarters is criticised for sub-standard quarters. There was trouble, threats and vandalism at the quarters situated in Askersund, and police were called there 30 times within 2 months. Also police were attacked, and the manager was threatened last summer, when five asylum seekers turned violent.

“We came here to live like human being, but it didn’t come out that way. We live like animals. We escaped from the bombings, but here we can’t live either.” Who says so is construction worker Abdullah Allabdullah, with a tear-filled voice.

“I think about death in Syria would be more honourable than what is life here.”

“Islamic law, I am for it. It is a long term struggle. It is going to take decades, maybe a whole century, but the movement has started.”

As we reported last night, two municipal councilors for the “Islam” party were just elected to office in Belgium. They are unabashed Islamists, and openly state that their long-term aim is to establish sharia in their country.

It used to be that only eccentrics, such as the notorious Ilford firebrand Anjem Choudary, openly espoused the establishment of Islamic law in Europe. But, as their numbers increase, more and more Muslims are clearly stating the truth — which so many Western politicians and media people do not want to hear.

Many thanks to Bear for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling this Belgian news video:

Monday, October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy came roaring ashore in New Jersey this evening, making landfall north of Cape May and south of Atlantic City. With winds of up to 90mph, it wreaked havoc up and down the coast in Delaware and New Jersey. A storm surge of 13 feet was recorded at the Battery in Manhattan, and other places witnessed 10-12 feet. ConEd shut down power to Lower Manhattan as a precaution, leaving the skyscrapers of the city in eerie blackness.

As of this writing the storm is over the Philadelphia area, making a big turn as it crosses Pennsylvania.

We’ve seen some wind and a lot of rain here in Central Virginia, but nothing like they’re experiencing further north and east.

In other news, a strain of tuberculosis has emerged in Eastern Europe that is resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Thanks to CSP, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, LH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

It has been hailed as a new era for the Muslim community in Belgium. Two candidates from the fledgling orthodox Muslim party Islam have been elected to seats in Anderlecht and Molenbeek in the recent local elections. The party plans to present candidates at regional, national and European elections in 2014.

Now that the Benghazi debacle has become more fully exposed, it is clear that one of Ambassador Stevens’ major tasks was to collect weapons supplied by the United States and its allies to the Libyan mujahideen, and send them to the Syrian mujahideen, possibly with the collusion of the Turkish government.

The following news report from Russian TV discusses the provenance of these weapons, which are being amassed in Syria by Islamic fundamentalists — including Al Qaeda affiliates — to bring down the Assad regime and install a Salafist government.

Many thanks to Russkiy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Finally, the MSM wall of silence erected on the behalf of their Chosen One has broken. The leaks were too many for it to maintain its integrity — even though those jornolists were “heroic” (i.e., obedient) in their efforts to build that wall and stand before it singing in unison with Himself and his cohorts, “It was the video, it was the video, it was only the video…” while they frantically tried to seal the leaks in their crumbling edifice. Our valiant jornolists did their best.

Nor did any of them raise the smallest demur when the film’s creator was hauled off to jail in the middle of the night — a place where he will remain until after the election.

If those two strong indications that we may be headed for a police state do not awaken my fellow citizens, I don’t know if there is any hope for us.

Fox is only a kinda, sorta MSM outlet — at least that’s what the other alphabet soup media would tell you. This is simply one more version of the cordon sanitaire put up around those who stray from the left’s orthodoxies. Thus, the “real” media repeat the mantra that Fox isn’t “really” legitimate like they are, hoping we’ll buy their lie that CNN is the fair one. On the other hand, I’m sure our readers could point out the times when Fox did indeed toe the line in order to maintain a thin red thread connection to that all-important access. Early on in Obama’s administration Fox was singled out by an administration that would prove to be the most vindictive since the days of Nixon.

But on this story Fox broke radio silence first, never mind that it took them more than a month to do so. And now all the MSM’s Sunday talking head shows featured Benghazi today. Benghazi as told by conservatives for the most part. As far as I know, though, none of the Dan Rather progeny have taken up the subject in a prime time news hour. Or if they have, it’s too little, too late: from September 11th until now is simply an unconscionable delay.

The initial credit goes to Glenn Beck, who is a force increasingly to be reckoned with. All the dismissive ridicule heaped upon him by his putative ‘betters’ is proving futile. His audience continues to grow. Frankly, now that he has accepted the ugly facts of the dangers the Muslim Brotherhood represents for this country, I’m in his corner. He gets it; Glenn Beck has broken the silence on civilizational jihad, and due to his influence with average Americans, this fact alone may save our sorry selves.

Mr. Beck was already questioning the events in Benghazi when he happened to hear a radio call-in show. The caller was the father one of the two men who were killed in action in Benghazi as they tried to hold off the hordes of attackers. Listening to the account moved Mr. Beck to arrange for his own interview with the grief-stricken, angry father. Beck had been on this story all week, a determined hunting dog following wherever the trail led. When he could find them, he pulled in experts to give their point of view on timelines and motives. Among them was Clare Lopez, a former CIA officer. It was her belief that the Ambassador was simply left to die.

I’d give you more links from The Blaze archives, but I’ve yet to figure out a good path through that labyrinth. That’s not pejorative; it’s simply the case that Beck has floods of information. Back when we had a satellite connection, I couldn’t retrieve much at all. Now with our new connection things are a bit smoother, but it does take big-city connectivity for optimum access to all his material. However, there is one crucial DVD he and his people have assembled. Along with other foundational texts on the menace of Islam, everyone with an interest in the danger ought to have a copy of The Project. I watched it on the site last week and to call it ‘riveting’ doesn’t do this production sufficient justice. What an important Rosetta Stone project it would make! I hope Mr. Beck considers doing versions in other languages so that those who don’t speak English can become more fully informed. If any of our readers knows someone connected to The Blaze, please pass the idea on to them for consideration. They surely have the means to employ translators and transcribers aplenty.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Even while I’ve been haltingly put the pieces together during the course of this ominously quiet Sunday, the ooze from under the wall has been slowly but steadily increasing.

Parallels between the rising furor over Benghazi and the wrath of the oncoming hurricane are both ironic and eerie. It’s hard not to make comparisons between that Benghazi debacle and the advent of the dreaded Hurricane Sandy . They are both singularly evil, each an unprecedented phenomenon, or almost so.

That Frankenstorm, whipped up on steroids and bearing down on a large portion of the Northeastern coastal corridor will come ashore in a way sure to cause maximum damage. Hurricanes are notoriously unpredictable, but this one is so very large and slow that authorities do know the subways in New York City had to close. And they know Sandy and her newly joined friends plan to extend their stay for a few days [all the way down here, hundreds of miles southwest of this massive attack, we could well lose power due to strong winds swinging from the arms of this hybrid monster].

Yet, as awful as she is, Sandy could become a welcome distraction for President Obama. He relentlessly criticized Bush for his handling of Katrina — now he gets his turn in the hot seat with a storm not categorized as severely as Bush’s nemesis, but with the potential for equal destruction. However, with Benghazigate brewing up to be a deadly blowout when all is fully revealed, Obama must be relieved to have a mere natural disaster riding his back. Sandy could become his ace in the hole as he sidesteps the pointed sticks of that epic FAIL in Libya. For at least part of the time early this week, Mr. Obama will be stuck in the White House at least for appearances’ sake. He will be forced to make meteorological theatre newsbytes to prove his concern for those not fortunate enough to live in his sheltered circumstances. Despite how closely we approach Voting Day, Obama can hardly run away from the storm to obsessively campaign. While his fellow citizens within reach of the maelstrom are riding out the storm surges and the immense havoc wreaked by Mother Nature and by opportunistic looters happy to cash in on someone else’s tragedy, he needs to do what he says Bush failed to accomplish.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hurricane Sandy is predicted to make landfall in New Jersey about 24 hours from now. It is expected to merge with two other weather systems to create a hybrid “Frankenstorm” a thousand miles wide, one of the most dangerous and destructive storms ever to strike this part of the East Coast.

The latest projections of the storm track show it coming ashore almost exactly at Atlantic City, and then moving inland to pass just south of Philadelphia. The greatest storm surge, however — nine to twelve feet — is expected to be in Manhattan and Long Island Sound. New York City is in the process of shutting down, and thousands of people are being evacuated.

It seems that we will escape the worst of the tempest here in Central Virginia. We’ll get some rain — it’s already begun — and there is a high wind alert, with gusts of up to 40mph (65kmh) possible. That’s not anywhere near as bad as last summer’s Derecho, but we may still lose our electricity. So if we don’t show up tomorrow morning, you’ll know why.

Fausta is much closer to the path of the eye than we will be. Come Tuesday morning, she may be blogging from her rooftop while she waits for the helicopter to lift her to safety.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, LH, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The English Defence League planned a return visit to Walthamstow yesterday, but a Home Office ban on marches there (and in three other London boroughs) prevented the EDL from demonstrating.

Unite Against Fascism, however, did not feel constrained by the ban, and showed up to stage their counter-protest as a “victory rally”. The authorities did not obstruct their event, and the UAF had the run of the place for the afternoon.

Esmerelda Weatherwax was in Walthamstow yesterday, and posted a photo-essay on the day’s events at the New English Review:

Whatever happened to Free Speech?Cf UAF in Walthamstow and EDL in Westminster

by Esmerelda Weatherwax

Readers will remember the appalling way the EDL were treated while exercising our democratic freedom to meet and protest in Walthamstow last month. Today [Saturday October 27] was set as the return to Walthamstow.

However last week Tommy Robinson and 53 men were arrested on the outskirts of London. Kev Carroll was arrested in Luton. Tommy Robinson remains in custody until after Christmas on charges concerning irregularities to the passport he used to visit the US for the commemoration of 11/9 last month. The other men are charged with conspiracy to cause a breach of the peace and allowed bail, on condition they do not enter East London. Paul Weston, leader of the British Freedom Party who was arrested for potentially causing a breach of the peace wile attempting to visit Tommy in prison has been released without charge.

Next the Home Secretary Teresa May set a ban on all marches in four London boroughs for 30 days. Those boroughs were Waltham Forest, in order to prevent today’s proposed march, Islington, just in case anyone approached the Finsbury Park Mosque, Tower Hamlets, lest anyone contemplate a demonstration at the East London Mosque, and Newham (site of the proposed Megagmosque). According to the notice on WalthamForest’s website this order prevented ALL marches, except funeral processions and those commonly or customarily held in the area, which would cover something like the local Scouts annual St George’s Day parade. The Home Secretary does not have power to ban static demonstrations. However the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police issued an order under S14 of the Public Order Act 1986 banning any EDL event in London, other than a permitted rally outside the Houses of Parliament between 1pm and 2pm. One hour only, only in that spot.

[…]

The UAF and their subsidiary organisation We Are Waltham Forest decided not to cancel their demo but to hold it as a “Victory Rally” As a former resident of Walthamstow who retains family connections I always had business there this weekend and decided I would lawfully go about it this morning. There was a strong police presence at all the transport hubs and railway stations. At Walthamstow Central Station UAF stewards were exhibiting their banners and attempting to sell their newspapers.

Tyrone Woods was a former SEAL who was killed at the “safe house” in Benghazi on the night of September 11th. Recent revelations have shown that not only were his calls for help turned down by the brass, but Tyrone Woods and his fellow CIA operatives were ordered to “stand down”.

Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods disobeyed orders and died as a result. They went in to the annex to try to help those who were under attack from the mujahideen, and were hit by a mortar shell. According to all accounts they were courageous and heroic, and fought to the end.

Charlie Woods, Tyrone’s father, was interviewed recently by Megyn Kelly on Fox News about what happened to his son in Benghazi. Mr. Woods wants some answers from the Obama administration, and he’s not the only one.

Diana West wrote last Thursday about another interview with Charlie Woods, and the cynical insincerity of President Obama and Secretary Clinton in their dealings with the grieving families of those killed in Benghazi:

Charles Woods, father of fallen ex-SEAL Tyrone Woods, called in to the Lars Larsen radio show yesterday to express his thoughts about the news that Benghazi was known to be a terrorist attack right away, was observed via Drone cameras in real time, and that relief forces remained undeployed from nearby countries.

Tyrone and ex-SEAL Glen Doherty were both killed by a mortar fired at the safe house annex late in the firefight, after Wissam bin Hamid’s Libya Shield Brigade had escorted eight Marines from Tripoli to the safe house.

Charles Woods says: “Someone had to say ‘don’t go rescue them.’ We need to find out who gave that order and why.”

Woods says he’s not angry at anybody but believes “something doesn’t smell right.” He recounted his experience at Andrews Air Force Base on the day that the bodies of the four Americans killed in Benghazi returned home. In a building near the hangar, the four grieving families were arranged in what he described as “pods” and the dignitaries on hand visited each pod separately. The president “kind of mumbled,” Woods said, “totally insincere,” His face was looking at Woods, he said, but his eyes were looking over Woods’ shoulder — “like he couldn’t look me in the eye.” Woods added: “It was like shaking hands with a dead fish.”

Pat Smith, Sean Smith’s mother, has also described the coldness of the commander in chief on this occasion.

The following summary of an article from Länstidningen Östersund, a local paper in west-central Sweden, was sent in by our Swedish correspondent LN. It concerns Gammalsvenskby (roughly “Old Swedeville” in American English), an ethnic Swedish enclave that was stranded in Ukraine after the dissolution of the Russian and Soviet Empires.

It turns out that Modern Multicultural Sweden, which is so eager to absorb cultural enrichment from Somalia and Iraq, is not so keen to take in refugees who happen to be, well, Swedish:

Länstidningen ÖstersundPublished October 28, 2012 at 01:01

Ukraine.

In 1781, 1,159 Swedish farmers from Dagö in today’s Estonia were displaced to Ukraine. Several years ago a few descendants of these — still Swedes — applied to take up residence in Sweden. But they were rejected immediately.

A few years ago a Swedish family from Gammalsvenskby, Ukraine, applied for a permit in old age to be allowed to settle in Sweden. The family was descended from the Estonian-Swedish population in the village, which still speaks Swedish as their mother tongue.

However, the Migration Board rejected their application, writes the journalist Kjell Albin Abrahamson in Länstidningen Östersund. He recently visited Ukraine and the Swedish village, where grinding poverty still prevails.

“Maybe the Swedish villagers should have instead been illiterates from Somalia,” says Kjell Albin Abrahamson, which for someone in the leftish Swedish press is a very unusual reflection.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Muslims the world over are celebrating the Feast of Sacrifice, which involves slaughtering domestic animals. A Palestinian in Gaza City was killed by a marauding cow that panicked when the man attempted to slaughter it.

In other news, in order to save money during its severe financial crisis, Greece plans to close eight embassies and two consulates abroad.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

As was reported yesterday in The Daily Mail, train robbers in Birmingham stole a shipment of anti-tank mines from a freight train:

Powerful Anti-Tank Mines Used by British Troops in Afghanistan Are Stolen From Goods Train

A shipment of powerful anti-tank mines have been stolen from a goods train.

Thieves are thought to have snatched the mines, used by British troops in Afghanistan, when the train was forced to stop because of a body on the track.

The munitions were discovered missing when the train pulled into a station 90 miles further down the line.

Specialist counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence, have launched a hunt for the missing mines.

The rectangular bar mines contain explosives but need extra components to make them operational, said Whitehall sources.

It is understood the heist on Thursday was the work of ‘opportunists’ who broke into one of the stationary wagons unaware of the sensitive cargo, rather than a targeted raid.

But investigators are concerned that the mines, which the British Army use to blow up bridges and buildings in Helmand, could fall into the wrong hands.

The L9 Bar Mines contain explosives but need extra components to make them operational, said Whitehall sources.

The obligatory pre-formulated “no-connection-with-terrorism” mantra was uttered by the British Authorities, much as it is by their American counterparts:

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘At this stage there is nothing to suggest that the theft is terrorist-related. However due to the potential complexity of the investigation and specialist skills of officers, inquiries are being led by counter-terrorism officers.’

Our English correspondent Seneca III disagrees with some of the conclusions published in the Mail article, however. He sends this explanation why there is likely to be more to the train heist than is being published in the media:

This one is interesting for several reasons:

1.

The theft took place in Birmingham, one of our major ‘occupied territories’. If it was the enrichers then the mines are now safely deep inside a Mosque where the law fears or is not permitted to tread.

2.

Under ADR (the regulations which require how ‘Dangerous Goods’ will be packed, marked and transported) the sides of the wagon in which the mines were being transported, plus their containers/crates inside, will have been clearly and conspicuously marked ‘EXPLOSIVES’. Hence whoever lifted them knew precisely what they were getting, and it can in no way be claimed that were taken by mistake for something else, as will probably be claimed by our treacherous leadership in the event that they do turn up in Muslim hands.

3.

However, it does look like an opportunistic heist rather than a planned one as the incident that caused the train to be delayed was quite a way to the south, in Oxfordshire, and there was no way that it could be predicted as to exactly where this particular train would be stopped as result thereof.

4.

The photograph in the article is of a Soviet Anti-Tank mine, not a UK L9 Bar Mine; whether this was deliberate or simply stupid disinformation is not known, but it may confuse any potential witnesses who may have seen the mines in transit from the train to their eventual hiding place.

Geert Wilders appeared in Malmö today at an event sponsored by the Swedish Free Press Society. The antifas and other usual suspects attempted to disrupt the occasion, but were kept out of harm’s way by the police.

Dear friends, I am very happy to be in your midst today. Thank you, Ingrid, for inviting me to address the Swedish Free Press Society. No demonstrator will prevent me to speak in Sweden.

I love Sweden and its people. One of my great heroes, Raoul Wallenberg, was a compatriot of yours. Wallenberg embodies all that is good and generous in the Swedish people. He defended the freedom and dignity of others. He protected those who had been marked for death by an evil ideology. And he gave his own life for it.

Recently, your minister for Integration, Erik Ullenhag, was in The Hague on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Wallenberg’s birthday. He abused the occasion to attack my party, the Dutch Party for Freedom.

Minister Ullenhag said that in Sweden a party like mine would never be given the opportunity to influence politics. I wonder what these remarks had to do with Wallenberg. But I know that Mr Ullenhag is wrong: Like the Netherlands, Sweden, too, and all the Western countries need a party defending freedom.

Because Sweden has the same problem as the Netherlands, Denmark and the rest of the Western world. We are all in the same boat. Our freedoms are in danger. Our political and often leftist media establishment turns a blind eye to the largest threat to liberty in our present age. This threat is called Islam.

Islam commands its followers to establish a worldwide Islamic state, where everyone has to live according to the Sharia, the barbaric law of Islam. And where Islam’s opponents are being marked for death.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn used to say that the truth is “seldom sweet; it is almost invariably bitter.” But the truth should be heard. The bitter truth that Islam is the largest threat to freedom today. And the unpleasant truth that Islam is already all around us.

The sign of Islam’s presence is visible in all our European cities.

Also in Malmö. Especially in Malmö.

25% of the population here originates from Islamic countries — the highest rate in the whole of Scandinavia. That is why it is good to be here. In this great city, which deserves better than it currently gets.

Even the international media have written stories about the outbursts of violence, the gang warfare, the shootings and bombing of police stations in Malmö. In a city like this our message needs to be heard: Malmö should not succumb to Islam. Malmö should remain what it was throughout its history. A decent, peaceful and safe place for people to live, work and raise a family. A free city.

In Malmö we must turn the tide. And show the world that the Islamization process can be stopped. That is why I am here. It is a coincidence that today marks the final day of this year’s hadj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. This is a symbolic moment to tell you that it is time to turn the tide. And to tell you that it can be done. But in order to turn the tide, we must first stop pretending that there is no problem as so many journalists and politicians tell you. We must first face the truth. We must first speak the truth. So that others will know it too.

Before I continue, however, let me make one thing absolutely clear. Whenever I criticize Islam I am falsely accused by some people with false intentions of hating people. In order to avoid any misunderstandings, let me state clearly that I criticize an ideology, not people. I do not hate nor do I want to harm any human being. I totally reject the use of violence.

In fact, the most important reason why I reject Islam is its violent nature and the fact that it is harmful to people, including its own adherents, whom we should pity rather than hate, and whom we should help to liberate themselves from the evil monster which is Islam.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Muslims in India will be celebrating Eid al-Bakra (The Feast of Sacrifice) a week from Monday. Their holiday enjoyment is being dampened by the cost of goats, which are the designated sacrificial animal for the feast. The price of goats has risen so dramatically that poor people are finding it hard to afford them, and the supply is inadequate.

In other news, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Egyptian Muslims to demand the implementation of sharia law in their nation, and to take hostages from among the citizens of Western countries that make war on Islam.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The following interview with the sheikh from Al-Watan reveals that his internet-based vitriol against the Coptic Church in Egypt is being hosted by service providers in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States.

Many thanks to Mary Abdelmassih for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

The following news report is a fairly balanced presentation on the Q Society, an Australian anti-sharia activist group. Given that it was aired on the ABC network — which is widely considered to be the broadcasting arm of the Australian Labor Party — it’s a remarkably informative report. Geert Wilders, Kevin Carroll, and Pamela Geller all get to speak their piece.

Farewell, my old, beloved Sofielund. Farewell, Möllan, where I played as a boy, and where I took my first steps into adult life. Farewell, exciting East Malmö, with all its fine restaurants and other shops offering good prices. I also say farewell to shootings, graffiti and gross damages.

During my fifteen years as a neighbour to Seved [neighbourhood in eastern Malmö, near Rosengård], I became an eyewitness to a man’s final steps in life, after he was shot in the head. My living room window was smashed twice, and I was burgled once. I have heard so many shots fired that I can tell if it was a pistol or a revolver. Additionally, we saw how drug trafficking came ever closer to my street, and then began to occur quite openly in my street, after police introduced CCTV. Only recently, teargas was shot into an apartment, because the festival being celebrated was too noisy.

That my move was less than two months ago feels somewhat surrealistic. After a seven-minute car drive from the Seved chaos, there is a totally different Malmö. I quite understand that other politicians have problems comprehending the problems in Seved, if they live in an area such as the one I live in now.

Below are excerpts from an essay by Pamela Geller about the current crackdown in Britain. It was published today in the American Thinker.

Darkness Descending in EnglandBy Pamela Geller

The arrest of over 53 people in the United Kingdom is the beginning of the end for once-great Britain. The leaders of the English Defence League (EDL), Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll, were among those arrested, as well as Paul Weston of the British Freedom Party (BFP). I spoke with Kevin Carroll about his recent arrest and that of Robinson and Weston, and he told me the appalling details.

Carroll told me that British authorities tried everything in the book to stop him from running for police and crime commissioner (PCC) for the Bedfordshire Police Authority. Nonetheless, he officially won the right to run for PCC last Friday. But then, the very next day, British authorities carried out these mass arrests of EDL and BFP members, stripping them and forcing them to wear white paper overalls like those given to incarcerated terrorists. They were allowed no phone calls.

Meanwhile, British police raided the homes of Carroll, Robinson, and three others who had been arrested. “They absolutely ransacked mine,” Carroll told me. “They smashed the door off and wrecked my home. They took my only vehicle, with all the tools of my trade inside, and impounded it, as well as Tommy’s car.” The police, the bomb squad, forensics teams, and sniffer dogs spent seven and a half hours stripping Carroll’s van to the bone. “When they finished,” he said, “they found nothing! They loaded it up with bugs and GPS monitors and threw everything in the back; it looks like it’s been in a blender.”

After smashing the door to Carroll’s home off its hinges, police officials repaired it, got a locksmith to put on a new lock, and left with the new keys, leaving Carroll locked out of his own home. When Carroll was released, still wearing his white paper prison suit, it was dark and raining; true to form, police officials offered him no transportation, even though it was late at night on a Sunday.

The leaked emails about the events in Benghazi on the night of September 11 2012 have confirmed what the fever swamps of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy have been saying all along — the attack on the consulate was an Islamic terrorist operation, the White House and the intelligence agencies knew that fact all along, and the absurd story about a “spontaneous” demonstration against the Mohammed video was just a cynical smokescreen.

It is now well-documented that the CIA, the Pentagon, and the Situation Room in the White House were fully informed about what was happening no later than two hours after the attack began. All the stories that were spun after that time by President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Ambassador Rice were — to put it bluntly — shameless lies.

It’s good to see this topic move out of Glenn Beck into Fox News. But it still isn’t being covered anywhere else in the MSM.

The story is said to be the “smoking gun” against the Obama Administration and its disastrous foreign policy. And indeed it should be. But a smoking gun is of no use if it is never picked up by detectives and displayed as evidence in an open courtroom.

As long as the major media ignore the issue, most Americans will remain unaware of the treasonous behavior of their elected and appointed leaders.

It will be interesting to see if it spreads beyond Fox. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

EXCLUSIVE: CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack, sources say

By Jennifer Griffin

Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later was denied by U.S. officials -- who also told the CIA operators twice to “stand down” rather than help the ambassador’s team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to “stand down,” according to sources familiar with the exchange. Soon after, they were again told to “stand down.”

Woods and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The rescue team from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight.

At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Spectre gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours -- enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

It’s good to see Glenn Beck put together all the pieces about the Obama administration and Libya. Listen to him discuss what happened in Benghazi on September 11 in this video from the Blaze, and there’s also Clare Lopez’ input on the same issue.

In related news, in a raid on a terrorist hideout on the outskirts of Cairo, Egyptian security forces killed a man who is suspected of being involved in the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi.

In unrelated news, two more American soldiers in Afghanistan were shot and killed by a man dressed in an Afghan police uniform who turned his weapon on them.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

An Egyptian imam known as Abu Islam is on trial for tearing and burning a Bible in front of the U.S. embassy in Cairo during the demonstration on September 11th.

Coptic groups have lobbied for the Muslim cleric to be held to the same standard concerning Christian scripture that is applied to Islamic scripture, as exemplified by the violent reactions across the Muslim world to Terry Jones’ burning of the Koran, and the indictments handed down against the makers of the Mohammed movie.

Below is a video of Abu Islam expressing his opinion about Coptic Christian “dogs”. Many thanks to Mary Abdelmassih for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

(AINA) — The trial of an Egyptian Muslim cleric accused of tearing and burning the Holy Bible convened for the third time on Sunday, October 21 at Nasr City Misdemeanour Court. On trial were cleric Ahmed Abdallah, known as Abu-Islam, owner of al-Omma TV Channel, his son Islam and journalist Hani Mohammed Yasin, editor of al-Tahrir newspaper. They were charged with contempt of religion by the state prosecutor. Abu-Islam is charged with tearing and burning a copy the Holy Bible during demonstrations in front of the U.S. embassy on 9/11 (AINA 9-14-2012).

Dozens of supporters of Abu-Islam disrupted the trial, ripped and burnt images of Jesus and the late Pope Shenouda III, and trod on them with their feet. A number of Christian Copts attempted to remove a banner on one of their cars which read “O Beloved [Abu-Islam] prophet of Allah.” According to eyewitnesses the confrontations were about to turn violent when security forces took control of the situation.

Abu-Islam’s supporters attempted to attack two Coptic lawyers, Dr Naguib Gabriel and Sherif Ramzy. “Court security guards intervened and hid us in their office for two hours,” said Gabriel, “and then drove us away in one of their cars from the court’s back entrance.”

During the previous court session on October 15, Abu-Islam’s supporters assaulted Coptic lawyers and activists with planks of wood, injuring attorneys Dr. Naguib Gabriel and Mr. Bebawi, as well as activist Rami Kamel of the Maspero Coptic Youth Federation.

Inside the court, defense lawyers for the three defendants were belligerently confrontational with the prosecution. Abu Islam’s lawyers withdrew from the case and applied for a change of venue, in protest of the lack of response from the court to their requests, specially their request to summon Bishop Pachomius, the acting Coptic Pope to attend court, “to ask him whether the ‘ripped book’ is the Holy Bible and whether it is used for worship in Egypt.”

The following excerpts from an interview with Oskar Freysinger, one of the leaders of the Swiss People’s Party, were originally published at the Right World news site in a slightly different form.

Oskar Freysinger: it’s time for the legal state to confine Islam’s religious dogmas within the appropriate framework

Interview by the Modus Agendi editor-in-chief Ilya Goryachev with Oskar Freysinger, one of the Swiss People’s Party leaders.

Ilya Goryachev: Could you please tell us about yourself, your party and its activity in Switzerland?

Oskar Freysinger: I’m a vice-president of the Swiss People’s Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei) and the president of its branch in Vale canton. Our party fights for the independence, neutrality and sovereignty of Switzerland. Equally, we stand for the controlled immigration policy, as well as for the diminishing of public expenditure and for limited state interference into private affairs. The independent, responsible and free citizen is of top priority for us. We don’t want statism nor for citizens to live at the expense of the state. As for my private life, I’ve been happily married for 25 years, I’ve got three children (aged 22, 20 and 17). By profession, I’ve been a teacher of German literature for 27 years in one of Sitten’s high schools. I speak fluently two languages: German and French, and also English and Italian. Besides, I’ve written many books in German and French — novels, stories, plays and poetic works. Five out of my books were translated into Serbian. Moreover, I’m a member of the Writers’ Association of Serbia. In one of my novels titled “Chess spiral” the action takes place at the time of the Russian revolution, and this work was translated into Russian. At present, I’m searching for a publisher in Russia.

IG: What is your opinion about the EU? In your point of view, what is the future of the EU? Many politicians — SVP members — predict its collapse, contrary to the left-wing representatives claiming that Switzerland would benefit from entering the EU and that rejecting it would mean isolation of Switzerland.

OF: The EU is a structure imposed on the nations by technocrats from above, and, in my opinion, this structure sooner or later will crash down. The citizens less and less identify themselves with that bureaucratic antidemocratic and centralist monster. Entering the EU would be an organizational, economic and financial catastrophe for Switzerland. In this case, only the tax of added value would increase from 8% to 20%, and we would be converted into cash payers of the debts of the bankrupt southern European states. Moreover, it would put an end to direct democracy and federalism — these two principal pillars of Switzerland. Without them, our state would inevitable tumble down. Switzerland should establish multilateral ties instead of one-way orientation mainly on the EU. It has many possibilities to set up relations with Russia, South Eastern Asia, South America etc. All these are promising, fast-developing markets, with which we should establish closer economic relations.

IG: During the last 20 years, in the Balkans wars — in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia — the EU and the USA have devotedly sided with Muslims. In your opinion, was such policy beneficial or harmful for Europe?

OF: Developments going on in the Balkans, especially the creation of the first Muslim state on European soil, are a catastrophe. It happened just because Americans are permanently strategically interested in preserving their Bondstill military base and place their geopolitical interests above international law. The USA are playing a dangerous game with their Saudi allies. Due to the dollar dependence on oil, they are dominating all financial markets worldwide. As a result, Islam is spreading further and further, though Americans are pretending that they fight it in Iraq and Afghanistan. Actually, that suits fundamentalists. The situation is getting more complicated by the fact that for the last years Kosovo has become a hub for drug traffic, prostitution and weapons trade. This country is entirely in the power of mafia clans. Rule of law is just a screen, the last Serbs are being gradually expelled from Kosovo.

IG: What is your personal opinion about Islam? How well do you know this religion?

OF: Islam is something bigger than just a religion. Islamic religious texts have not only a general moral and ethical character, but often claim an all-round participation in state’s formation. The Koran appeared in a written form after the year 800, in the course of wars of conquest, it reached Spain so that it became crucial to create a legislative code of rules and laws necessary for unification of different clans and tribal organizations, previously called Saracens, not Muslims. Moreover, mosques could hardly be compared with our churches, what is often realized by our departments of civil property register, since it’s there where juridical and civil procedures are mainly conducted. The privileged access of a Muslim to Allah goes through Shariah law. Islamic norms. In Islam morality is based on the law, whereas according to our juridical interpretations, it’s quite the opposite — the law is based on morality. In Islam morality is based on legislative norm, that is secondary to the law that, from the point of view of Islam is logical, since the law is considered to be of divine origin, non-created and granted once and forever. When quoting the Koran, a Muslim quotes the text to a certain extent close to our state laws, but contrary to them, Koran laws have a divine origin and therefore are unchangeable. That’s why it’s not surprising that a Muslim who has abandoned Islam is threatened with death, and that 94% of all sins, for which Koran imposes sufferings in hell as a punishment, are related to doubts in the truthfulness of Mohammed’s teaching and Islam, as well as to criticism addressed to them. It’s dramatically varying ideas of the law’s origin that indicate in fact how difficult it is to bring into practice co-existence of these two worldviews.

IG: For what reasons did you stand against the construction of minarets? For example, in London there are about 400 mosques, aren’t there?

As mentioned the other night in the news feed, the past week has seen near-simultaneous crackdowns on the English Defence League (UK), Génération Identitaire (France), and the Pro-Movement (Germany). Whether there was any co-ordination of these separate operations by the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the European Union is open to question. But there is no doubt that a new season of political repression in Europe has begun, and we can expect to see more of the same.

Our Canadian correspondent Rembrandt Clancy has translated some relevant material from the German theater of the recent operation, and includes this introduction for our readers:

On 23 October 2012 the police in North Rhine-Westphalia searched the homes and offices of members of the Pro-Movement. These raids occurred, coincidentally or not, in close temporal contiguity with the arrest of EDL members in the UK and members of Génération Identitaire in France. Below is the first statement on the events issued by Pro-Cologne in which they offer their analysis of the pretext for the raids and the allegations associated with them.

Readers may recall that the Pro-Cologne Citizens’ Movement (Pro-Köln) is an anti-Islamic electoral party in the city of Cologne and has members on the city council. It has been a leading opponent of the building of the Cologne Central Mosque. In Cologne-Kalk (a district of Cologne) Pro-Cologne fought for the eviction of the so-called “autonomous centre” (das autonome Zentrum), a Kaleidoscopic collection of groups from the German Left and roughly comparable to the occupy movement, although it actually antedates the latter.

Derived from Pro-Cologne is Pro-Deutschland at the federal level, and PRO-NRW which is active on the state level (North Rhine-Westphalia). The chairman of Pro-NRW is Markus Beisicht, a jurist who is mentioned in the Pro-Köln’s statement below. Readers will recall that Pro-NRW conducted their “Freedom Instead of Islam Tour” earlier this year on the occasion of state elections and displayed Mohammed caricatures on some of their stops. Their demonstration in Bonn achieved the most notoriety when on 5 May 2012, after the Pro-NRW demonstrators displayed their Mohammed cartoons, the Salafists went berserk and one of them, Murat K., stabbed two policemen in the thigh. Immediately prior to the Bonn event Pro-NRW managed to acquire a court order overturning Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger’s (SPD) edict that they were not to be displayed at the Bonn demonstration.

The police raids on Pro-Movement’s homes and offices falls under the purview of the aforementioned Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger. But there is a silver lining in all this for the Islam-critical Pro-NRW. The good news is connected with the announcement in the Pro-Cologne statement below that there will be a demonstration in Wuppertal-Elberfeld this Saturday (24 October 2012) against the construction project of the DITIB (Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs). Planned is the building of a giant mosque with a minaret of around 28 metres in height. Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger, yet again, had issued a decree against the display of Mohammed caricatures during this pending political action. But this morning (24 October 2012) the decree was overturned, yet again, by the Administrative Court in Düsseldorf. The cartoon by Kurt Westergaard will now be displayed at the upcoming demonstration along with cartoons from a previous Islam-critical cartoon competition. The Pro-Movement’s demonstration on Saturday may be well worth following (Source: Bürgerbewegung Pro-NRW).

Even before the confrontation over the Mohammed caricatures, the political and media establishment in North Rhine-Westphalia tried everything possible to silence the inconvenient PRO-MOVEMENT. Today the politically directed prosecutor’s office in Cologne pursued a further level of escalation in this Belarusian-style criminalisation and defamation campaign. On the orders of the Cologne prosecutor’s office, which is sufficiently known in respect of these issues, search warrants were executed today in the offices of the PRO COLOGNE party as well as at the houses of various leading officials of the PRO MOVEMENT. Numerous written documents and computers were confiscated at the same time. The capacity for action of the Cologne party — which is seen by many as the nucleus of the PRO-MOVEMENT — was thereby paralysed overnight. The party members elected by 20,000 citizens of the city of Cologne as a counterweight to the coterie-parties are thereby limited in an egregious manner in their work of safeguarding and opposition. The prosecutor leading the search dismissed this circumstance lightly as “collateral damage”.

The pretext for the search is alleged irregularities in the accounting of the Cologne party meetings. The extent to which this pretext is trumped up in order to intimidate the top management of the PRO-MOVEMENT is already emerging from one fact alone: that searches have also occurred at the home of PRO-COLOGNE and PRO-NRW chairman Markus Beisicht in Leverkusen and at the home of PRO-DEUTSCHLAND chairman Manfred Rouhs in Berlin; in other words, at the homes of persons who could not have had anything at all to do with the outrageous calumny: Markus Beisicht, as Leverkusen city councilman, has never even billed a party meeting in Cologne, and Manfred Rouhs had already dropped out of the Cologne council in early 2011 and moved to Berlin. From these two examples the political exploitation of the Cologne prosecutor’s office in Belarusian or Chinese tradition becomes especially clear: The top management of the PRO-MOVEMENT is intended to be maximally intimidated, calumniated and criminalised for months and from many quarters; also, numerous representatives of the press were promptly waiting in front of the party offices in Cologne, apparently informed by the public prosecutor’s office.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

I don’t have a news item in the feed for this, but the latest sensational story about the 9-11 attack on the Benghazi consulate concerns emails that were sent to the White House the night the four Americans were killed. They show that President Obama was informed that the incident was a terrorist attack while it was still ongoing. Not only did the President lie about the nature of the incident for almost two weeks afterwards, but he failed to act while it was still possible to prevent Ambassador Stevens and the three others from being killed.

It’s uncertain whether this revelation will effect Mr. Obama’s electoral chances, since the major media outlets are ignoring it or downplaying it.

In other news, nine “British” men have been charged in the Rochdale grooming scandal, accused of sexual offenses with a single underage girl. The case has a Mohammed Coefficient of 22%.

Meanwhile, the Italian coast guard rescued a boatload of 200 North African migrants within Libyan coastal waters. 37 of those refugees were women, at least two of them pregnant. All were taken to the holding center on the island of Lampedusa.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The following TV news report from Germany serves as a video follow-up to the five-part series about Neukölln mayor Heinz Buschkowsky and his new book (see: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5). It discusses the evolution of a parallel sharia legal system in the Muslim ghettos of major German cities.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Stephen Lennon, known popularly as Tommy Robinson, was arrested on Saturday in the latest act of police harrassment against him. “Tommy” has been given numerous warnings by the police that his life is in imminent danger. But instead of arresting the would-be murderers they persecute him for his political views. He has been exposed to arrest after arrest and has been driven into penury because of his outspoken opposition to sharia.

His organisation, the EDL, has been responsible for exposing the sexual ‘grooming’ of girls across the UK. The suffering of these poor children had apparently been ignored due to the British State’s ruling ideology of political correctness. The powers-that-be do not seem to be happy about this. Tommy’s arrest comes at a time when the BBC, that bastion of left wing political power and propaganda in the UK is mired in its own peadophile cover up scandal.

British Freedom Chairman, Paul Weston, concerned about the former Co-Vice-Chairman of his party enquired after him at the prison where he was thought to be held. He too was arrested and taken into custody.

Those that rule the British State are now out of control. All pretense that the British are a free people is ending. How many more dissidents will be rounded up on the flimseyest trumped up charges in the newly emerging British Police State?

Please join me in a moment of silence for the people of that imprisoned island.

In the midst of the current political crackdown in Britain, it’s important to remember what the crackdown is aimed against.

The authorities don’t show their iron fist so blatantly unless they are afraid, deeply afraid, and the political establishment is very much afraid of the prospect of being unseated by someone outside the current order. The three major parties — Labour, the Lib Dems, and the Tories, often known as “The Triad” — intend to make sure that no one attains any significant office unless they rise through the ranks of one of those three parties in the traditional way.

Anyone who gains any prominence as an open opponent of Politically Correct Multiculturalism risks what is now happening to the English Defence League and British Freedom.

Kevin Carroll — who was arrested over the weekend as part of a nakedly political operation against legitimate dissent in the UK — is currently standing as a British Freedom candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in Bedfordshire. Below is his just-released campaign video.

Our British readers can listen to what he has to say and decide for themselves whether this man deserves being arrested for breach of the peace, creating a public nuisance, racially aggravated such-and-such, or whatever cockamamie charge the authorities invented to bring him down:

The following update on the status of Tommy Robinson, Kev Carroll, and Paul Weston was just posted the British Freedom website:

Update: BF/EDL Arrests

This is a quick update on the situation regarding Tommy Robinson, Kevin Carroll and Paul Weston.

Tommy has been denied bail and is locked up on the main wing of Wandsworth prison in London. He is in close proximity to Muslim prisoners, who are shouting various threats against him. As long as he is separated from them he should be safe, but if he should be attacked the Governor of Wandsworth prison will be held accountable.

Kevin Carroll has been released. His home was broken into and searched; his work van impounded and searched by Special Branch. This appears to be a politically orientated attack on Mr Carroll with the intention clearly being to discredit him before the Police and Crime Commissioner election on 15th Nov.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Has there been a coordinated crackdown against Counterjihad activists across the European Union? Besides the takedown of the EDL and British Freedom, four leaders of the Génération Identitaire group that occupied the mosque in Poitiers have been arrested. Meanwhile several leaders of the German group Pro-Köln are being investigated for fraud, and have had their houses searched and their computers confiscated. All of these incidents occurred within the space of three days.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, heroyalwhyness, ICLA, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, Nilk, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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As of next year, Yaakov Kirschen will have been drawing his Dry Bones cartoons for forty years. He’s announced a special project for the occasion, and asked us to help spread the word:

To mark the 40th anniversary of my Dry Bones cartoon I decided to launch a Dry Bones Haggadah project at Kickstarter. We officially launched on October 15th. Within a day and a half one hundred and one backers had provided more than the initial goal of $5,000 that we had requested. I had stayed up, glued to the computer screen watching the numbers go up. Bleary-eyed and excited, I suddenly understood something important. I didn’t need a Rothschild to back my project. One hundred and one Rothschilds had used the Internet to find me and my project. The implications are fascinating…